


and the highway signs say we're close

by That_WriterGirl



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Road Trips, Secret Wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-05 23:24:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13398462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/That_WriterGirl/pseuds/That_WriterGirl
Summary: It feels more real now, with the weight of the ring on his finger. Mitch can see the two of them walking down a street like this years into the future, both retired and still as happy as they are today. It’s easier to comprehend what forever really means, and Mitch… Mitch finds that he’s a big fan of forever.Or, Mitch and Auston buy wedding rings, take a road trip, and reflect, if not in that order.





	and the highway signs say we're close

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [we've got this figured out](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10867749) by [lotts (LottieAnna)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LottieAnna/pseuds/lotts). 



> Disclaimer: If you or someone you know is depicted below, please click away. This is a work of fiction. All details below are made up or public facts about public figures. Thanks!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy reading this! This is an expanded scene I wrote inspired by LottieAnna’s [we’ve got this figured out,](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10867749) a wonderful fic about family, weddings, and growing up. You should definitely go read it. Thanks again to Lotts for letting me play around in your world and for your lovely comments. I had an absolute ball writing this.
> 
> Untagged warnings: some mild closet anxieties, although nothing major. If you see anything else that needs tagging/warning, let me know!

Mitch and Auston leave for Buffalo bright and early with nothing but their passports, a backpack, a couple of bottles of water, and the name of a jewelry store saved into Auston’s phone. It’s surreal, mostly, but pretty cool all the same.

“Is it too much to go today?” Mitch asks, actively pulling out of the driveway, “Like, I kind of really want to, and there’s not really a better time, but we just thought about rings yesterday. Am I supposed to be this excited?”

“Dude, we’re getting married in three weeks,” Auston says, “I think we passed spontaneous a while back. Also, it’s objectively awesome. We’re buying fucking wedding rings. We’re supposed to be excited.”

“Alright, point taken,” Mitch says, and he can’t stop a smile from creeping across his face, “to Buffalo we go.” It almost feels like a longer, offseason version of their drive to practice, and it’s easy to fall into the same rhythm, chatting and bickering over the radio just like they have for so many months.

Before they know it, they’ve crossed the border into New York. They picked Buffalo because it was the closest thing they could get to Toronto without turning their engagement into tabloid fodder, but Mitch thinks there’s something special about coming _here_. It’s an NHL city, sure, and that means something, but the two of them both have history in this town. Mitch thinks back to lottery balls and combines, to months spent in limbo before they were sent off to start the rest of their lives. He thinks of Auston’s name called first not even a year ago and the _tiny_ chance that the two of them would even end up on the same team, let alone fall in love. And yet here they are, running back to that same city for a grand pre-wedding trip. What a crazy world. (What an _amazing_ world, Mitch thinks.)

Mitch knows that he’s unbelievably lucky. He feels like he’s going to wake up any day now back in his billet in London, still seventeen years old with something to prove. And maybe he does have something to prove, but it sure doesn’t feel like it today, not when the two of them are so sure about this that Mitch’s heart wants to burst. And sure, maybe he could be a little stronger. Maybe he could a little bigger. But he’s got a season in the NHL under his belt, some pretty awesome teammates, and a fiancé who’s driving all the way to Buffalo with him so they can buy their wedding rings together. He couldn’t ask for anything more.

* * *

It turns out that buying a ring isn’t as easy as pointing at a display and swiping a credit card, so Auston and Mitch sit at the front of the store to wait for a saleswoman. It’s the middle of a weekday, so the only other people waiting are the two women sitting across from them, flipping through the magazines on the coffee table.

One of the women looks up. “So, are you guys from around here, or are you just here for the parade?” she asks.

“Parade?” Auston asks, tilting his head. She blushes, smiling self-consciously and looking back down.

“Sorry,” she says, “I shouldn’t have assumed that you two were…” She trails off, still not meeting their eyes. “It’s just that Ava and I are in town for Pride on Sunday, and I thought that maybe…” She finally glances up at them, and only then does Mitch see the rainbow keychain hanging off her bag, how close she’s sitting to woman beside her. Auston looks at Mitch, asking a silent question. Mitch thinks for a moment, then nods, almost imperceptibly.

Auston lowers his voice a bit and swallows before speaking “You–you’re not wrong. I mean, we’re just here for the day, but, uh, yeah.”

She clearly doesn’t know who Auston and Mitch are, or she wouldn’t have asked the question in the first place, but still. It feels like _something_. Something big, Mitch admits to himself.

“Pride parade?” Mitch asks after a moment, partly out of curiosity and partly just to have something to say. 

“Yeah!” the other woman–Ava–says, brightening up, “the big parade’s on Sunday, but the whole weekend is really cool. Lily and I try to make it every year.” Because of course Auston and Mitch planned their trip smack-dab in the middle of Pride weekend. Auston chuckles, and Mitch can’t help but laugh along.

“Sorry,” Mitch says, “I’m not laughing at you, I promise. It’s just–of course we picked this week to come down. It’s too perfect.” Ava and Lily smile alongside them, and Mitch figures the tension’s broken.

With the awkwardness all but gone, the four of them chat for a bit. Turns out Lily and Ava are both big baseball fans, so Mitch gets to watch Auston light up as the three of them go back and forth about the Jays’ chances this year. Mitch wouldn’t trade his current life for the world, but this is nice, too–just two sets of strangers in a jewelry store acting like old friends. It’s amazingly normal, and Mitch takes a minute to enjoy it _._

* * *

Soon enough, it’s their turn at the counter. Auston and the saleswoman talk idly back and forth as they walk over to the display, but his eyes widen once they get up to the counter. He looks a little like a kid in a candy store, excited and unchill like Auston so rarely is, and Mitch thinks he’s pretty adorable. They’re just both so ready for this, the rings and the wedding both.

Auston starts rapid-fire questioning the woman about types of metal, and Mitch is overwhelmed by a wave of fondness. And, like, Mitch knows that ring shopping with your fiancé is a pretty reasonable time to be affectionate. The sales associate obviously knows they’re together; they’re not trying to be discreet. That’s why they’re in Buffalo in the first place, so that they can be like any other couple, if only for the day. Still, Mitch can hear that little scared voice, developed after years in the O and a season in the show, reminding him to tone it down and watch his back. Sue him–he’s a closeted athlete and old habits die hard. But then Auston looks back at him and beams, honest and real, and Mitch can’t help but grin in return. The voice quiets down, if just for a moment. Mitch looks back at Ava and Lily, thinks _fuck it,_ and grabs Auston’s hand as tight as he can. He’s going to _marry_ this man. It’s the sort of thing that makes Mitch want to be brave. Auston squeezes his hand tight, that smile growing even wider, and Mitch knows that he’s made the right choice.

The two of them keep holding hands while the associate starts pulling trays of rings out. Turns out, there are way more options than Mitch was expecting. He knew it would be a romantic gesture to go together to Buffalo, sure, but he’s also kind of glad neither one of them had to make the decision alone. The saleswoman points out a few good places to start, though, and it’s easier once they start looking.

Auston finds his ring first, a thin gold band. It’s not too heavy or too delicate, and Auston keeps running his finger over it once he puts it on. Mitch, who had to let go while they looked through the trays, grabs Auston’s hand again, just to try it out. The metal isn’t quite as cold under the heat of their hands, and it feels like something he could get used to.

“We’ll take it,” Auston says.

It takes a while longer for Mitch to find one he likes for himself. Well, that’s not quite right. He likes them all just fine, but it’s harder to find one he really loves _._ They’re all great rings, but none of them feel like they’re _his._ In the end, it’s Auston that picks one up, holding it out.

“What about this?” he asks. It’s almost the opposite of Auston’s ring, made of an almost-black metal, and it looks _right_ in a way the others didn’t. Auston slips it onto Mitch’s finger, holding his wrist with the other hand, and Mitch isn’t swooning, but he’s willing to admit that it’s pretty cute. The two of them look down at Mitch’s hand for a couple of seconds before Auston clasps their hands together, the rings clinking together where their fingers meet. Mitch glances up and Auston looks awed, eyes blinking, before his face breaks into another one of those smiles. 

“So, what do you think?” Auston asks, as if they both don’t already know the answer.

“Definitely the one,” Mitch says, hushed.

They’re fairly sappy until they leave the store. Neither ring is fancy enough to warrant special ordering, so they only have to take them off for long enough to swap the display rings for new ones. They’re probably breaking some sort of tradition, and they’ll have to take them off once they get back to Toronto, but they’re young and in love. They’re allowed to be irreverent and sappy like that, Mitch thinks. Judging by the way Auston’s blush rises to his cheeks every time he looks down at their joined hands, he feels the same way. It’s objectively a small moment, standing at the checkout at a little store in Buffalo, but Mitch thinks it’s pretty much perfect.

* * *

They spend the rest of the afternoon walking around in the city, hazy summer sun shining above them. It’s kind of a nice thing to do before the wedding, to spend the day together in a town that doesn’t know them back. It’s still a workday, so the streets are quiet, leaving them to explore on their own. Now that Mitch is looking for them, he can see the beginnings of Pride decorations peeking out of a few windows, the start of something that’ll bloom in earnest this weekend. Mitch admits that there’s something comforting about seeing all the rainbows. Plus, something in Auston’s face lights up every time they pass another banner, and he looks back at Mitch, smiling. It’s pretty sweet. Mitch still doesn’t hold Auston’s hand, not out in the open like this, but he thinks that he could, someday. That’s an intoxicating thought.

It feels more real now, with the weight of the ring on his finger. Like, they both knew what they were doing when Auston proposed. They were spontaneous, not thoughtless. Still, it’s easier to imagine now, the gravity of forever. Mitch can see the two of them walking down a street like this years into the future, both retired and still as happy as they are today. It’s easier to comprehend what forever really means, and Mitch… Mitch finds that he’s a big fan of forever. 

He’s proud of the two of them, too. It sounds kind of silly, but they picked out rings by themselves, they went to Buffalo by themselves, they’re going to arrange this whole thing themselves. It’s not like they don’t have great people around them–they’ve both got great families, awesome teammates, and a patchwork, cross-continental hockey community they’ve cobbled together over the years. Still, it’s nice to know that they can do this themselves, and they make a good team.

“This whole being married thing is going to be pretty awesome,” Mitch says. 

“Yeah,” Auston says, grinning, “it really is.”

And like, if someone had asked Mitch a couple of years ago where he’d be at 20, he wouldn’t have guessed he’d be buying wedding rings in Buffalo. Hell, he wouldn’t have guessed it if you’d asked him a year ago, before he’d made the show or Auston had shattered the glass that first practice or he’d fallen in love. But he looks around at Auston and this city and the sun that’s just barely shining through the clouds, and he’s pretty damn happy where he ended up. Turns out, Buffalo was pretty special after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! If you still haven’t read Lotts’ [original fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10867749), let me recommend it one more time. It’s absolutely wonderful, and I hope I did it and its themes justice.
> 
> Fun stuff from this fic:  
> –Here are the links to photos for [Mitch’s ring](https://www.zales.com/edward-mirell-mens-65mm-milgrain-wedding-band-titanium/p/V-19972999) and [Auston’s ring.](https://www.zales.com/mens-40mm-wedding-band-14k-gold/p/V-20035700)  
> –Buffalo’s actual Pride weekend date really was that same week as the trip in Lotts' fic! A lot of this story spawned from me imagining the two of them just stumbling upon the festivities at this really critical point in their relationship, and it’s somewhat based on a true story: I had a pre-scheduled a trip to DC the evening the marriage equality ruling came out, and it was pretty cool for (not-yet-out) me to be there and see the city that night. I really wanted Auston and Mitch to get that same experience, albeit at a different point in their lives.  
> –Ava and Lily’s names were Ava and Mandy at one point until I looked at their first initials, laughed, and decided that would be just a bit too much. Still laughing at my subconcious for picking those names.  
> –I have very little in common with these boys, but this still felt pretty personal to write. If it resonates with you, too, know that I’m sending happy thoughts your way. I hope reading it helps to bring happiness to others–writing it made me really happy.  
> –The title was taken from Stubborn Love by The Lumineers.


End file.
